Six years ago, I changed roles from CAPS CEO to Chief Program Officer here at the Community Foundation. At the end of this calendar year, I will make another transition as I retire from the Chief Program Officer role and continue part-time in a supportive role with Building Strong Brains, our community’s early childhood initiative.
I have been so fortunate to have mentors, partners, and colleagues throughout my 35 years in Elkhart County (and seven years in New Mexico) to engage in meaningful and impactful work, largely focused on children and families. It is fitting that my next (and smaller) chapter is helping build a system-wide movement to create a brighter future for children.
The Community Foundation is in a unique position to support the community’s priorities, ALL of which rely on strong nonprofit organizations. We are so grateful for the hundreds of individuals who lead, invest in, and deliver on strong missions through nonprofit organizations. My current position has provided me the opportunity to see the impact across the entire community. From small, single-focused services to large cross-sector partnerships in areas as diverse as cultural and arts events, community vibrancy efforts, increasing student success, and supporting vulnerable populations, I see the quality of life in Elkhart County improving in big ways. Thank you for making this a great community where serving together is a joy!
I remain in my current position through the end of 2024 and look forward to interacting with all of your organizations in the months ahead.
Sincerely,
Candy Yoder
Chief Program Officer
Every year the Program Team reviews the grant application and report materials, looking for ways to improve the process for you, our partners. We take notes through the year as you provide feedback, and we observe where the process seems unclear.
You might have noticed that the grant portal was closed from June 15 to June 30. Now that it is reopened, you will find a few changes. Based on your feedback, we expanded the character limit for many of the responses to questions. The other changes were made to clarify and streamline the process. Please let us know if you have any difficulties with the application. Please continue to give feedback to your program officer about the grant application and reports.
For the last 24 years on a Saturday in June, people have enjoyed riding the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail as part of its annual ride.
This year’s celebration was bigger and better than ever, not to mention having nearly perfect weather.
The celebration started on June 11 at Goshen’s First Friday with a wheel-centric theme and music including The Steel Wheels. Thousands were at this summer celebration.
On Tuesday, June 11, the founders of the trail gathered with nearly 200 others to mark the completion of the 17-mile trail with a ceremony and dinner at Abshire Park.
On Friday, June 14, people rode bicycles to and from a thresher’s dinner at an Amish home.
Then on Saturday, June 15, nearly 500 people completed rides ranging from a few miles to 100. The last group arrived more than 10 hours after the start of the ride and a woman finishing her first century ride was welcomed with pie and ice cream.
This was a delightful marker along the way to celebrate the amazing work of so many in our community to make the Pumpkinvine rails-to-trails a reality after more than 30 years of work.
Stay tuned on what’s next for those who are working at making trails in our community. You can sign up for the email newsletter here to learn more.
More than 200 people are involved with Building Strong Brains, the early childhood initiative in Elkhart County to ensure all children are Born to Thrive in Elkhart County.
Team members are actively engaged to improve outcomes in the areas of maternal and child health, quality child care and early learning environments, and community supports for children and families.
The systems work is complex, but the collaborative commitment to working together and strategically learning is driving the collective progress. Collective grant proposals, program partnerships, identification of data to inform the action work, and networking opportunities are a few examples of how the coalition partners are leveraging and aligning resources to improve early childhood outcomes in Elkhart County.
We invite you to learn more about the Building Strong Brains Initiative at buildingstrongbrains.net and sign up for the Building Strong Brains quarterly newsletter. You can read the June newsletter and sign up for future ones. Contact Kim Boynton at [email protected] if you would like to join in the collective work.
Building Strong Brains’ Community Supports for Children and Families Action Team is researching and piloting findhelp, a search engine providing opportunities to identify and connect families to resources. To learn more about findhelp, visit findhelp.org and see the included information sheet below.
The Community Foundation is committed to providing training, education, and counsel to our nonprofit partners. We have done that for many years through The Learning Center. That effort has grown with the addition of Kevin Deary as full-time director of organizational & professional development for the Community Foundation.
In just over a year since Kevin joined the foundation:
In addition to our grants, we want our nonprofit partners to be successful and will do what we can to help accomplish that.
We will announce our TLC workshop lineup for the coming year very soon.
The Community Foundation launched the Inspiring Good Podcast a few months ago, featuring nonprofit partners and others who are working for good in our community.
Co-hosts Kevin Deary and Marshall King are interviewing a range of people to showcase how nonprofits are making life better in Elkhart County.
You can find the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms. You can also learn more on our podcast page.